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Sunday, October 5, 2014

And For This Cause Ye Shall Have Fulness of Joy

September 29, 2014

Oh my goodness so many things to
tell you all!!

OK, we had a "surprise"
zone meeting with the Mission President (I say surprise because we all were
told about it just the night before). In this meeting I learned and remembered
some really important things, but above all, was this video. I saw it in the
MTC and it changed me and how I think about what I am doing and what I really
am sacrificing and brought an incredible love of the Savior. I dare you to not
cry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd30i48a3do

Highlights:

-Happy fall! I'm pretty sure that
fall here is mas o menos the same temperature that it is in Colorado in the
summer. Except I heard that it was really not that hot this summer, so I'm pretty
sure it's still hotter here.

-Since it's fall and I'm silly and
stubborn, I wore a cardigan anyway yesterday to church. Turns out it was a good
thing because the chapel was freezing. Also, the temperature IS going down,
because when we were walking around working that afternoon I thought
"Yeah, I'm hot with this sweater, but I've been way hotter in the past few
months." My guess is that it was like 80, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, but
that's just my guess.

-I saw a nun for the first time!
Weird, because I am living in super-Catholic Mexico. Also a surprise because
she was wearing white, not black. The Sound of Music lied to me.

-I heart clouds. That is all.

-My companion and I were talking
about something, and for some reason – I forget why – the conversation turned
to Monster's Inc. and she said that the little green monster was "Mike
What's-up-ski." She is so cute and I love her dearly.

-There are some times I go to
family’s houses, and because they talk about things like cars and different
states in Mexico and other things that I don't know about and don't have an
opinion/the vocabulary for, I don't talk very much. We went to one of these
houses on Sunday to eat. While pouring water for one of the elders, I asked him
if he wanted to finish/empty the pitcher of water, except not in those words.
What I really said was, "¿Quiere matarlo?" Which means, "Do you
want to kill it?" The son laughed and said "Sister, you are learning
some really important Spanish." (You can also translate it to mean,
"Do you want to kill him?")

Baptism!!

OK; this baptism is really important
to me, because we have fought to bring it to pass. (I'm losing my normal
English so I have to resort to Book of Mormon phrases. Laugh if you will), and
I mean FOUGHT – sometimes even against other missionaries – to get this to
happen. We've prayed, pleaded, sweated, worried, taught and so much more to bring
this cutie to the waters of baptism.

Isaac
is really wonderful, in a very annoying little brother way. He is 11-years-old
and is a straight-up rockstar. He has taken himself to church, he has asked his
parents and grandparents to buy him church clothes to wear, he has memorized
scriptures for talks in primary, he is working on his "Faith in God"
and he is helping us to teach other people in our neighborhood. He is an
incredible example to me of how the gospel changes people and has taught me
many things in the past few months.

Now some highlights of getting this
baptism to "come to pass."

-One of the obstacles we had to
overcome was getting his non-member dad to give permission for him to be baptized.
We helped him to learn a sentence to express clearly what he wanted. "Dad,
I want to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized this Sunday." The Spanish
word for follow is seguir, so the
sentence is "Yo quiero seguir Jesucristo y ser bautisado este
Domingo." What he said while practicing was, "Yo quiero perseguir Jesucristo y ser bautisado
este Domingo." Perseguir means pursue.
So close! We laughed really hard.

-We make all sorts of sacrifices for
our investigators. Like when the church's baptismal font doesn't drain all the
way so it's full of nasty things like dead tarantulas and cockroaches and
crickets.

Oh,
and there was also a live tarantula that kept trying to climb into my bucket as
I scooped the water out. But eventually the night guard came and helped and
took care of the spider. Don't try to tell me this isn't a labor of love.

-After his baptismal interview,
Elder Bloxham, our district leader, told us that in the closing prayer Isaac
was praying about who could baptize him (another challenge was getting a hold
of his uncle, who was in Hermosillo the day before and didn't get back until Sunday
afternoon) and he said "Please bless my uncle Panches that he can baptize
me, if not him, then Arthur (one of the members of the family that has
fellowshipped and helped more than I can say and I am more grateful than I can
express), if not Arthur, then Elder Bloxahm, if not him, Elder Miranda, if not
him, Sister Anderson, and if not her, Sister Mendez." Guess who needs to
teach about priesthood authority again ... but don't worry, his uncle came so we
didn't try anything apostate.

-During the baptism I felt
so…much…joy. It wasn't perfect – nothing here is. My expectations are defied at
every turn. But the spirit that was there was incredible. I nearly started
shaking from the strength of it. I know that Isaac has a long and difficult
road ahead of him, but now he qualifies to have the Holy Ghost with him to help
and strengthen him at all times. And I know that this young man is going to do
incredible things in his life.

In 3 Nephi 28, the Resurrected
Savior is talking to a three of his apostles who desire above all else to help
in the work of God. He says to them, "ye have desired that ye might bring
the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand. And for this cause ye shall have fullness of joy; and ye shall sit
down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the
Father hath given me fullness of joy." The fullness of joy is found in
bringing others to the gospel. Sometimes – well, all the time – I wish that
missionary work was easier, that it was the opposite of what it is; that it was
full of joy and happiness with only a few bits of things that are really hard
and seem unbearable. But it's not, and it can't be. But oh how sweet those
joyous moments are.